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- Super-Charge Vista! Or at Least Give It a Prod
- Hardware Requirements: The Basics
- Hardware Upgrades for Vista Bliss
- More Memory: Cheap, Easy, and Quick
- Bigger, Better Video Card
- Installing a Faster CPU: Not an Easy Upgrade Option
- Andy's Recommended Upgrade Plan
- Boost Vista with Your USB Key
- Tweak Your OS
- Boost Your System with Basic Maintenance
- The Fruits of Your Efforts: Performance Monitoring
This chapter is from the book
Andy's Recommended Upgrade Plan
After all that upgrade chit chat, let me summarize for you what you might consider doing if you have a bit of money and are willing to be more ambitious than usual, if you're not a system tinkerer.
For most people who consider themselves intermediate computer users, but not advanced geeks, I recommend the following upgrades, if needed:
- RAM—Definitely upgrade to 1GB of RAM and go to 2GB if you have a bit of extra cash. Go to 3 or 4GB if you play games, edit video, or want the 4GB geek bragging rights.
- GPU—If you bought a midlevel or premium system in the last two years, and it has a separate video card slot (or you can swap out the video card that's there), invest in a newer video card with 256MB or 512MB VRAM.
- CPU—Skip a CPU upgrade unless you have a hardcore geek around. The headaches and resulting performance boost aren't likely to pay off.